Kochi (Cochin) consists of a mainland part (Ernakulam), a peninsula (Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin)) and some islands (Vypeen and others). There are inexpensive ferries running between them, e.g. Rs2.50/$0.07 between Ernakulam and Fort Kochi. Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin) is where most tourists head to (because mainland Ernakulam is a big dirty busy uninteresting Indian town, … Continue reading Highlights of Kochi (Cochin)
I spent 2 great days in a backwater village homestay in Chennamkary (island) near Alleppey. Wow. Way cool. Today I arrived in Fort Cochin which is a more relaxing (tourist ghetto) part of Kochi (Cochin), on a peninsula by the open ocean. There are cool Chinese-style fishing nets on large cantilevered poles here (the unofficial … Continue reading Arrived in Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin) today after my backwater village homestay
Map of my India trip note that some town names in my “flags” will have slightly different spelling (due to new and old names), but if it sounds close, it’s the same Here is the list of places I visited (with state name for the first time entering a state): Chennai, Tamil Nadu Mamallapuram Pondy … Continue reading Map of India and my stops
Note that “Highlights of [town]” blog entries are usually out of sequence wrt other entries, i.e. they tend to happen after I’ve moved on. For example, the recent Highlights of Kochi and Bangalore entries came after my general Hampi and arrived in Goa entries, which does NOT mean that I went to Kochi and Bangalore … Continue reading Note about blog entries being out of chronological order
Alappuzha (Alleppey) was nothing exciting in and of itself, it’s more of a gateway to the backwaters. It sits roughly in the middle of the at least 120km long (north to south) stretch of backwaters; I’m not sure how wide it is (though it is wide too). Basically the area goes from Kochi (Cochin) at … Continue reading Highlights of Alleppey and backwaters
In Fort Cochin, a part of Kochi (formerly Cochin), I saw one Internet cafe, as well as one restaurant, that didn’t sell water in plastic bottles. Instead, they hae big 5 gallon re-usable water bottles (similar to the big water coolers we see in offices back home, or in homes and offices in Arizona and … Continue reading Tips: reducing plastic waste